Project Gutenberg's The Princess of Montpensier, by Madame de La Fayette

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Title: The Princess of Montpensier

Author: Madame de La Fayette

Posting Date: November 5, 2008 [EBook #2365]
Release Date: October, 2000

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER ***

The Princess de Montpensier

by

Mme. de Lafayette

Introduction

By

Oliver C. Colt

This story was written by Madame de Lafayette and published anonymously
in 1662. It is set in a period almost 100 years previously during the
sanguinary wars of the counter-reformation, when the Catholic rulers of
Europe, with the encouragement of the Papacy, were bent on extirpating
the followers of the creeds of Luther and Calvin. I am not qualified to
embark on a historical analysis, and shall do no more than say that
many of the persons who are involved in the tale actually existed, and
the events referred to actually took place. The weak and vicious King
and his malign and unscrupulous mother are real enough, as is a Duc de
Montpensier, a Prince of the Blood, who achieved some notoriety for the
cruelty with which he treated any Huguenots who fell into his hands,
and for the leadership he gave to the assassins during the atrocious
massacre of St. Bartholomew's day.

He was married and had progeny, but the woman to whom he was married
was not the heroine of this romance, who is a fictional character, as
is the Comte de Chabannes.

The Duc de Guise of the period whose father had been killed fighting
against the Protestants, did marry the Princess de Portein, but this
was for political reasons and not to satisfy the wishes of a Princess
de Montpensier.

It will be noticed, I think, that women were traded in marriage with
little or no regard to their personal emotions, and no doubt, as has
been remarked by others, marriages without love encouraged love outside
marriage. Whatever the reality, the literary conventions of the time
seem to have dictated that we should be treated only to ardent glances,
fervent declarations, swoonings and courtly gestures; we are not led
even to the bedroom door, let a